NHS warnings to travellers and free help

 

The UK's National Health Service has online information. In surgeries, nowadays often called medical centres, you can  pick up leaflets, read posters, and watch slides and videos on screens in waiting rooms.

Currently, in November 2025 you can see information on

What to pack in terms of pills and medical supplies, especially if you have certain long-term conditions.

Flu jabs for adults and children.

Reminders to update your doctor if you change your phone number or address.

Useful NHS website

Www.nhs.uk

How To Keep Track Of Your Travels, and Vaccines, and why

 I have been doing some houuse clearance and have to decide what to do with old diaries, maps, and plane tickets. Before throwing anything away I shall take a photo, and make a list. 

Why does it matter? I shall first show you why it matters, then how to keep track.

Serious Reasons

1 You might want to fill in a residency  or nationality application and want to show when you first entered the country to live there.

2 You might want to know exactly which year you visited a country to seems precise when answering questions in a job interivew.

3 You might wish to show how long ago you first did something to prove your professional status and experience (such as how long, how many years, you have been a travel writer, speaker, or stand up comic) in order to qualify for membership of a society which offers free goods for review and is for professionals and tries to exclude newcomers and amateurs.  

4 To establish how long ago you contracted some deadly disease rife in a foreign country.

5 To check when you last had a flu vaccine, Covid. Other vaccines. 

d jab, or anti rabies jab . (I had anti-radies after I hurt myself getting out of a taxi in Cyprus I needed to check later which year it was to not have two jabs too close toegether, and to restore immunity which gradualy fades. I needed Covid before being let back into Singapore after returning from our sons' wedding in the UK. Which year was that? Which month? My air ticket will tell me.)

5 To check on X-rays. I also wanted to know which year I had had the all clear verdict of a TB chest x-ray which was obligatory before I started teaching in Singapore.

6 At a funeral, my ex-boss's son had placed medals from the Korean war on the coffin. The niece of the deceased demanded angrily that the medals were removed, and the eulogy was amended deleting any claim that the deceased had been in Korea in the armed services in wartime. She claimed that her father had received medals for serving in the Korean war. But her uncle had been merely been in the merchant navy visiting Korea at another date. 

Fun Reasons

1 It is nice to know

2 You might wish to give a speech on your birthday or another family member's of friends' birthday, showing how well travelled you are.

3 You might wish to show friends and descendants that you really did visit certain countries, to back up the veracity your amusing travel tales.

4 You might wish to do a fun XXmas or holiday quiz on guess how many times you or another person visited a certain country, or who has travelled most.

5 To fill in an online quiz.

1 Summarise travels on the back page of your diary.

2 Keep on ongoing excel list.

Photograph on tickets and keep a folder on your laptop or phone.

Write a blog and update it.

You can buy a downloadable vaccine record sheet from Etsy. Vaccine passport books are sold on Amazon.

You might wish to print a record of all your vaccinations and dates, flu, Covid, TB, tetanus. Also x-rays if you don't want too many from different hospitals and dentists.

Covid Record Cards

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vaccination-Passport-Certificates-Perfect-Softcover/dp/1729771319

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/COVID-19_Vaccination_Record_Card

Covid-19 What Do These Death and Infection Statistics Mean?

The USA is in turmoil. Some people are in favour of lockdown, others against.

You often hear or read:

'The percentage of people affected is less than one percent. That's less than die of flu.'

It is like comparing guns and knives. 

When I go to a doctor, I don't want him to refuse to treat me on the grounds that I am more likely to be run over by a bus. 

Nr to refuse to treat my teenage child on the grounds that he is more likely to die by suicide. Or by driving too fast.

To the average member of the public these figures are meaningless and the public presented with these facts showng tiny percentages ignore them. Many forums in popular media repeat the idea that it is all a lot of fuss about nothing. 

To convey the message that these statistics are important, we may need to illustrate numbers in human and visual terms.

Meaning how many deaths? And families and workers – does a percentage really matter? If we tell the public this means x deaths in ‘your street’ or ‘your children’s school’, or two primary school children in your school will lose a beloved granny, or two schools in your city will lose a teacher, they are more likely to understand the implications and  demand action and comply with suggestions and laws and instructions.

It would certainly put a blight on a wedding if a parent or grandparent died.

It would cause a major upheaval in a family if the grandparents doing babysitting and childminding were taken away so that the parents could not work.

Stay home. Stay safe.

Useful Websites

https://www.gov.sg/features/covid-19
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/covid-19-a-cautionary-tale-from-spore?
Facebool.trevorsharot

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, club organizer and speaker.

Toastmasters International Find a Club
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learncool.sg
Braddell Heights Advanced speakers club meets every Wednesday, currently on line.
Future Meetings include
Wednesday May 13th, lucky for us, as we have Thomas Chen running a workshop on Networking.
Contact President Angela Lansbury or VPE Faith. Then login to learncool.sg and wait to be admitted by the host.
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Is Covid-19 like the 1918 flu and WW2?

Seattle, USA, police wearing masks in 1918. Out of copyright photo from Wikipedia.

I was asked, is Covid-19 like the 1918 flu and is it like WW2.

In a few important ways yes, in other imortant ways, totally different.

Personal Story
Let's start with the 1918 flu. I have a personal interest in this. My late mother, living in London, UK, often told me how her mother, Hetty, had phoned her brother, Nat, in South Africa. Nat, newly emigrated, newly married, was upstairs in bed, with the flu.

Nat ran downstairs to answer the phone. He dropped dead.

My mother's lesson from this was, always have a phone by the bed so that when you are ill you don't stress yourself by getting up.

1918 Flu Fatalities
The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Lasting from spring 1918 through spring or early summer 1919, it infected 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time.^[2] The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.^[3]

Now, were the covid-19 and 1918 flue situations in any way alike?

Yes, the 1918 Flu and Covid-19 flu were in some ways alike.
They affected many countries. (Both were classed as a pandemic - pan meaning many)

SAME!
We should learn lessons from the past.
1918 flu
Similarities
1 1918 Coronavirus
It is a coronavirus, same family of viruses.
2 1918 Pandemic
Both pandemics were moved from country to country by people.
(In 1918 by soldiers deployed and returning home).
3 Masks
The public wore masks. (You can see photos.)
4 Killed by Cures & Preventatives
The 1918 had one supposed aid, aspirin. Unfortunately many died from overdoses.
5 Shortages of Coffins, Morgues Burial Plots, Staff

Now, let's see the opposite point of view.
No, Unlike.
1 No vaccine
(Vaccines first appeared in the 1940s.)

Death rate in 2020 Not Yet known - but here's a thought.
In 1918 the world population went down due to deaths - but recovered.

WWII
Yes, Like
1 Censorship
Censorship of casuality figures to maintain morale.
2 Foreigners Segregated, Imprisoned or Attacked
Perceived citizens of enemy countries were attacked or imprisoned and tried to conceal their identity.
3 Food Shortages
Food shortages and ration books.(Rationing in the UK continued until 1952)
Alliances.
4 WWII Communication only by radio.
2020 we can meet on the internet. Work on the internet. Contact family and friend on the internet. Speak to the dying in hospital on the internet.
5 Cnsorship of identities of the dead
UK Postwar newsreels, soon censored when audience members saw dead bodies of loved ones and created disturbance in the audience.

No unlike
1 WW2 countries outside the zone.
Switzerland and Ireland opted out of WW2.
2 Complaints
People in 2020 are complaining about stay home. However usually at least one person can go out to shop or exercise. (In some places not if over 70 years of age. Rules vary from country to country. In WWII in the UK there were curfews at night, no lights, to not attract bombers. Petrol shortages and rationing.
 
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu#/media/File:Spanish_flu_in_1918,_Police_officers_in_masks,_Seattle_Police_Department_detail,_from-_165-WW-269B-25-police-l_(cropped).jpg

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When, Wedding Speeches & Toasts.
See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts destinations, online events, singers, songwriters, statues and learning languages.

If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,
Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England.
I am also a member of
Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. In 2019-2020 I am also a member of
Tampines Changkat Advanced.
Harrovians, London. Tiarel, Singapore.
Toastmasters International Find a Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
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lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991
learncool.sg
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Coronavirus Precautions Considered - Enough Or Not Enough?

Flag of China

The Coronavirus has spread around Asia.


This pretty little flag is the flag of Hong Kong.



Some people have argued that, 'A lot of fuss is made over a few deaths.'

I have seen posts saying:
'More die from alcohol,' and
 'More die from road accidents,' and
'more die from flu'.

Yes, firstly we have loads of laws in place to try to stop these.

We already have countries with prohibition for alcohol, drink driving laws, tax on alcohol, points on licenses for drink driving, flu jabs.it is all our effects which reduce the effects of all the other causes.
Experience has shown that we can reduce deaths by taking precautions, other prevention, or punishment.

Secondly, the latest deaths are not instead but in addition to all the other deaths.

I have also heard:
You are going to die anyway;
It is only the elderly;
It hasn't killed you yet (therefore why wash hands).

If you took this attitude, you would never bother with hospitals for anybody or anything.

What is on my mind is:

1 Nobody has said how long you remain ill until you recover.

2 And are there any after effects? This is very relevant. People argue that not many are dead.

Polio
Relatively few died from polio, but a US president was in a wheelchair all his life from catching it. the paralytic illness of  Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) began in 1921 when the future President of the United States was 39 years old.



Measles
Measles might not kill you. But you could end up deaf-blind like Helen Keller who had either scarlet fever or meningitis. You could be weakened and succumb to the next round of flu.

We are lucky today that modern science can identify what's wrong with us. Although that's not much consolation when they tell us that it could be a year before a cure or vaccine is developed.

1918 Flu
The 1918 flu killed the young who were not immune, and killed more than WWI.

Be vigilant.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

About The Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please see my other websites. Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Travel restrictions caused by the Coronavirus And How This Could Affect You

We get flu at this time of year worldwide. I and friend in London, England, and Singapore have had flu.



Flag of China

The symptoms of this coronavirus are similar. The Coronavirus is a family of viruses including the common cold, SARS and MERS.

Coronaviruses are so named because when seen under a microscope they have spikes like a crown. At first China was apparently arresting people for spreading fake and alarmist news about this coronavirus.

Then the cases multiplied. Videos appeared showing bodies in the street and crowds of people wearing masks at a Wuhan hospital.

 Wuhan is the capital of a province (a large area like a US state) called Hubei in central China. Wuhan has a population of eleven million. Larger than London, England which has a population of 9.9 million.



Any Good News?
Yes. Decisive action by the Chinese government. No ifs no buts. No travel within or to and from the centre of the contagious virus in Wuhan.

Contagious means touch. Infections means airborne, so somebody sneezing nearby can pass it on.

You can check at airports to see if somebody has a high fever. However,
1 They might not develop symptoms until several days later.
2 They might not be suffering any symptoms but could still pass it on to you.


More Good news at the end.





Challenges
What is the coronavirus?
Coronavirus is a blanket name, like flu. SARS was a coronavirus. The latest one in 2020 started in December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in China. But it really hit the news in late January 2020. On Friday 24th, the eve of Chinese New Year, I read that China was closing:
travel out of the city of Wuhan, including guards at railway stations.
Closing down the Great Wall.
Closing the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Closing several chinese cities.
Closing McDonalds in Wuhan.
Building a hospital with the timeline of a week.

Where Did It Start
apparently in a market selling foods including snakes, bats, koalas and more.

You cannot in many cities celebrate Chinese New Year. You cannot travel to meet your family, greet incoming overseas visitors, and so you cannot exchange red packets containing money.

Any Solutions Or Good News?

Traditionally you would be meeting up with family to give the unmarried youngsters red packets, red for good luck, containing money.



Red Packets
The latest thing is sending money through your phone. Works well now that those in China are restricted from travelling.

I looked up the Chinese restaurant we used to visit near Watford in North West London. They seem to be closed for Chinese New Year. We would go there because parking was easy and they were so large you could usually get a table.

Imperial China, Elton Way, Watford WD25 8HA, tel +44 1923 238888. (Reviews on tripadvisor.)

Chinese food, fast food, or pricier restaurants, is available all over Singapore. Most food courts serve a plate of chicken rice at a moderate price. You often get a bowl of chicken soup. In the centre of the city in big shopping malls you will pay more than out in the suburbs. Open air food courts, with fans overhead, are usually cheaper than the indoor air conditioned places.

Useful Websites
UK
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Restaurant_Review-g187058-d2186297-Reviews-or180-Imperial_China-Watford_Hertfordshire_England.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/about/symptoms.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51245680#
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7927975/Coronavirus-spreads-Australia-Four-confirmed-cases.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed

Useful Travel Websites

singaporeair.com

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Please share this link
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/collect-red-packets-for-chinese-new-year.html 

How To Have Fun At The French Kissing Festival!

Problem
Kissing festival? Where? When?

Answer
FRANCE VALENTINE'S DAY AND KISSING
It's at Roquemaure in South East France, on the Rhône river, the Saturday before Valentine's Day (according to the local website). Please check dates. The name means black rock in Occitan language. Roque is French for rock.

Wine, women and wonderful.

Not just any women. Kissing nuns. And kissing priests. The festival was started by a priest.

In February 2018, in London, it's flu season. Frankly, I'm a bit wary of kissing anybody on the lips. Or even the cheek. Or even shaking hands. Or being in a room with lots of people.

However, I am interested in the Fête du Baiser, La Fête du Baiser.

It's at Roquemaure on the Rhône river. Not the Rhine, the Rhône. I don't know the Rhône well.

I have heard of Château-neuf-du-Pape on the other side of the river. In English the name means the new home (or castle or mansion) of the pope. So this area of the Rhône is a wine region, an important wine region, depending on wine for prestige and income.

Roquemaure is 12 kilometers north of Avignon. Everybody knows Avignon. In kindergarten, we sang, Sur le Pont D'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse. On the bridge of Avignon, everyone dances, everyone dances. Unfortunately, that's a mistranslation. Even in the days of the horse and cart dancing in the road was a dangerous thing to do. They were not dancing sur but sous le pont, underneath it.

The local people dress in period costume. The wine is free and flows freely. (Is there an entrance fee? Or do you pay in kisses?)

What can you buy locally? Commemorative stamps at the post office opened for the festival in the Capitale des Amoureux. Wine and Cheese. A complete meal, starting with olives and walnuts. For your starter or main course, speciality sausages, and to flavour any other main course you choose (such as scrambled eggs), savoury aromatic truffles. To finish with something sweet and romantic, lavender honey and gingerbread hearts.

For more details see the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/18/1108609398996.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roquemaure,_Gard
avignon-et-provence.com

OVER TO ITALY - VALENTINES AND ANIMALS
If you think that's odd, St Anton's church in Italy blesses dogs. In fact all kinds of animals. (See next post.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

If Naomi Campbell wears a mask, should I? Face masks - could they help you avoid catching colds and flu?

Problem
In Singapore I changed seats on three occasions to get away from people who were sneezing or coughing without wearing masks.

Masks might not stop you breathing in germs which are already airborne. But they look like they stop sneezes spreading germs so far. I certainly don't want to sit next to somebody who keeps sneezing and coughing. It's a good idea to have a paper tissue in your right-hand pocket if you are right-handed, ready to grab and cover your nose and mouth when you feel a coughing fit coming on or a sneeze.

Answers
Many people in Singapore, Korea, Japan and other Asian countries wear masks when they have a cold.

You might wish to buy maks for one of two reasons:
To protect yourself.
To protect others.

Celebrities
I hope the wearing of masks by celebrities will help the idea to catch on in the USA, England and Europe and worldwide. Celebrities seen wearing masks include
Naomi Campbell.
Kate Perry.

Haze and Fumes
You can buy masks to help protect you from the haze. Last time there was a haze, some of the pharmacies ran out of masks. I saw traffic police standing on raised plinths in the middle of swirling traffic wearing masks, presumably to protect them from breathing in traffic fumes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5292279/How-fight-flu-face-masks-arent-crazy.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer and speaker.